Game Preview
• The Navy men’s lacrosse team (1-2, 0-1 Patriot League) will look to capture its first win in Patriot League action on Saturday when the Mids play host to Holy Cross (0-3, 0-1 PL). The 11th edition of the Navy-Holy Cross series is set for an 11:00 am faceoff at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium.
• The game will be streamed online for FREE via PatriotLeague.TV and NavySports.com. Live stats will also be available at NavySports.com.
• Navy held a 2-0 advantage over Bucknell through the first quarter, but the Bison went on a 4-0 run in the second quarter to secure a lead it would not relinquish. Attack Sean Doyle paced the Bison with four goals, while Bucknell’s defense held Navy’s leading scorer Sam Jones scoreless for only the sixth time in his 41 collegiate game appearances.
• Holy Cross is seeking its first win of the season after dropping its third in a row on Tuesday with a 17-9 loss at Harvard. Junior middie Terry McKenna led the way for the Crusaders with 4 goals.

Taking the Field In …
10 – Senior attack Sam Jones’ 10-point performance against VMI in the opener marked the most points scored by a Navy player since March 20, 1991, when Dennis Nealon recorded 12 (4G, 8A) against Washington College. It is tied (Kevin O’Shea, Hartford) as the most points scored by a player in DI lax this season.
9 – Starting attack T.J. Hanzsche owns a team-best 9-game goal-scoring streak. The last time he did not score a goal was on March 12 against Towson
8 – 8 different players on Navy’s roster have scored goals against Holy Cross, including senior attack Tucker Hull who has produced 5 goals and 7 assists in 3 games against the Crusaders.
7 – Navy has reached double digits in 7 of the 10 games (8 in 2005 and 2011, 5 in 2013) it has played against Holy Cross. Navy has lost just five games (55-5) when scoring 10 or more goals since the start of the 2004 season … Navy is 9-0 under Sowell when scoring 10 or more goals (5-0 in 2012, 3-0 in 2013, 1-0 in 2014)
6 – Co-captain Pat Kiernan needs 6 ground balls to move into 10th on Navy’s all-time ground balls leader board … he owns 149.
5 – Pat Kiernan is tied for 5th nationally in career scoring by a defenseman with 12 points (9G, 3A).
4 – Third-year head coach Rick Sowell is 4 wins from earning his 100th collegiate victory. He owns a 96-99 record in 15 years as a head coach.
3 – Navy senior attack Sam Jones needs 3 goals to join the Mids’ all-time top 20 goals scored list … he owns 69 heading into Saturday’s contest.
2 – Senior Austin Heneveld, who came into the season having scored multiple goals just once in his career, has scored 2 goals in 2 games this year.
1 – Over the last six seasons, 29 (11-18) of the Mids’ 88 contests have been decided by 1 goal.

Scouting the Crusaders
• Coming off a breakout season that saw Jim Morrissey’s Holy Cross squad put together a 7-8 record, the Crusaders have struggled out of the gates in 2014. Facing a challenging slate, Holy Cross dropped a 15-13 decision to 19th-ranked St. John’s in its opener. Last Saturday Holy Cross opened its Patriot League season by playing host to ninth-ranked Loyola, who dealt the Crusaders a 16-4 loss. On Tuesday, the Crusaders traveled to Harvard with Crimson scoring a 17-9 victory.
• Tuesday’s game at Harvard marked the start of four straight games on the road for Holy Cross, who will face Richmond next Tuesday, followed by a trip to West Point to meet Army on March 8.
• Junior midfielder Terry McKenna and sophomore attack Sean Wilkinson have been solid in the opening weeks. McKenna leads the team with 9 points on 7 goals and a pair of assists. He was responsible for 4 goals in the loss at Harvard. Meanwhile, Wilkinson has produced 8 points on 5 goals and 3 assists. Wilkinson was sensational in the opener against St. John’s, scoring 4 goals and adding 2 assists.
• The Crusaders have surrendered 48 goals in their three games (16.00) with sophomore Michael Ortlieb standing between the pipes for 157 of the 180 minutes. Ortlieb owns a 16.79 goals-against average and a 38.0 save percentage.
• Freshman Ben Williams has taken over the faceoff duties where he has won 50.7 percent (36-71) of the draws to date. He had a strong outing against Harvard where he won 15 of the 25 faceoffs (.600).
• Holy Cross has scored 12 of its 26 goals in the fourth quarter. It has been outscored 39-14 in the other three quarters of play.

Navy vs. Holy Cross – The Series
• Saturday’s contest marks just the 11th meeting between Navy and Holy Cross … the Mids own a 9-1 advantage in the series, including a 23-5 victory over the Crusaders in the inaugural meeting in Annapolis in 2004.
• Navy and Holy Cross have played one another three times in Worcester, Mass. (2005, `09, `11) and four times in Annapolis (2004, `06, `10, `12).
• Meanwhile, Navy and Holy Cross have met on neutral three times.
• In 2007, the two programs faced one another at SMU’s Ford Stadium where the Mids dealt Holy Cross a 12-2 loss. It was Navy’s first trip to Texas since the Mids defeated Johns Hopkins, 9-6, on May 8, 1971, at the Houston Astrodome.
• In 2008, Navy and Holy Cross were part of the Ford Patriot Cup which featured two high school games, along with two Div. I men’s lax games (Rutgers vs. Army). Navy scored a 16-3 win over the Crusaders at Texas Stadium, the former home of the Dallas Cowboys.
• Last year Holy Cross earned its first victory over the Midshipmen in 10 tries, securing a 7-5 victory on the shoulders of Terry McKenna who netted four goals for the Crusaders. The game was played at Citi Field, the home of Major League Baseball’s New York Mets. It was just the second Div. I men’s lacrosse game played at a Major League Baseball venue.
• Navy has scored eight or more goals in nine of the 10 games, while putting up double-figure goals in seven of the 10 (8 in 2005 and 2011) … the Mids’ defense, meanwhile, has held Holy Cross to five or fewer goals in eight of the 10 games. The Crusaders have scored seven goals in each of the last two games against the Mids.

National Leader Board
• According to the latest national statistics released on Monday by the NCAA, the Mids are ranked among the top 20 in five categories.
• After finishing outside of the top 30 in each of the last five years in faceoff percentage, Navy rookie Brady Dove has the Mids among the top 15. Dove stands 17th in the individual rankings, winning 62.1 percent (36-58) of the draws he has taken, while Navy as a team is ranked 13th with a 63.1 faceoff winn percentage.
• Navy’s man-down defense has been stout this spring, warding off 9 of the potential 11 extra-man goals by its opponent. The Mids are ranked 17th nationally in man-down defense (18.8)
• The Mids are also ranked among the top 20 in ground balls per game (18th, 32.33), scoring margin (18th, +3.00) and scoring defense (19th, 7.67).

Kiernan Among Nation’s Top Poles
• Senior long stick defensive midfielder Pat Kiernan is one of the best at his position in the country.
• Kiernan, a 2014 Preseason All-American, was among the national leaders in both caused turnovers (12th, 2.00) and ground balls (32nd, 5.23) last season.
• He is Navy’s record holder for career caused turnovers (55), a stat introduced in 2009 … with 26 caused turnovers last season, he finished the year ranked No. 3 on the Mids’ single-season list … he is also ranked ninth (14, 2012) and tied for 13th (11, 2011) on the chart.
• He is tied for 11th on Navy’s career ground balls list with 149, 6 shy of joining the Mids’ all-time top-10 list … meanwhile, he turned in 68 grounders last spring to etch his name in at ninth on the Mids’ single-season chart … it’s the most ground balls by a Navy player since 2008 when draw specialist Mikelis Visgauss grabbed 80.
• He is also 19th on the Mids’ career faceoff wins list, winning 24 of the 54 draws (44.4) he has taken.
• Kiernan has produced 12 career points, including a program-record 10 in 2012.
• He is tied for fifth in the country among active poles with 12 points behind Brown’s Roger Ferguson (28), Bellarmine’s Bobby Schmitt (21), Virginia transfer (from Lynchburg) Josephs Lisicky (16) and Syracuse’s Matt Harris (14). Air Force’s Kyle O’Brien, Hartford’s Alex Matarazzo and Villanova’s John LoCascio also have 12 points going into the weekend.
• Kiernan is second all-time in career points scored by a Navy defensemen, while his 9 goals are the most at Navy.